


Someone to Watch Over Harold

by Flora (florahart)



Category: Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-25
Updated: 2008-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-25 03:05:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1628273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/florahart/pseuds/Flora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harold's watch is still on the job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Someone to Watch Over Harold

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Ladybug218

 

 

On the fourth day of Harold's convalescence in the hospital, at three thirty-one in the afternoon, the Shard from Harold's watch, irretrievably a part of Harold now, took his pulse for the six thousand four hundred seventy-first time since the accident.

Shard was nothing if not thorough.

Harold's heart rate was elevated, his breathing erratic.

Shard became concerned.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, if one was Harold Crick, Shard had made friends.

Within a moment of Ana removing her blouse, Shard had made contact with a number of other entities within the room. First, it checked in with Blood Pressure Cuff, who automatically tightened down, causing Harold to grimace.

Cuff reported his pressure was up slightly, though well within the range of human tolerance.

Shard had to admit, the heart rate was also within the parameters of normal tolerance. However, _Harold_ was not within normal Haroldish parameters; he'd undergone surgery and had a number of broken bones, all of which meant there was bruising, which implied damaged and weakened blood vessels whose capacity not to burst and cause additional damage might be compromised.

Shard wasn't taking any chances. It reported its findings to Heart Rate Monitor, which, beeping its observations even as it drew the uneven line on the chart, concurred: in his weakened state, Harold might--possibly, if he were quite unlucky indeed--be vulnerable. Heart Rate Monitor opened a dialog with Call Button. 

A moment later, before Blood Pressure Cuff had even finished releasing the extra pressure, Call Button squealed, and a nurse came running.

Ana blushed and held her crumpled blouse before her lovely breasts, stepping back from the side of the bed despite Harold's efforts to reach for her with his awkwardly bent arm in its thankfully solid cast.

The nurse smiled at her, but frowned at Call Button, poking it twice and examining its nether regions before telling Harold she wasn't sure why it had activated.

Shard didn't understand her cavalier attitude toward Harold's well-being, and thought that an anonymous report as to her disinterest in keeping the patient hale and hearty might be in order.

It checked Harold's pulse again.

Oh, dear.

Harold's pulse, rather than quieting upon the removal of Ana's fingers from Harold's bare flesh, had increased further.

Shard worriedly cast a glance at Blood Pressure Cuff, who inflated immediately.

The Nurse looked at it, puzzled, and pressed Buttons on its exterior, muttering about inferior equipment and grant money and underpaid staff.

Cuff deflated, helpless, and Heart Rate Monitor slowed its beeping slightly.

Shard sighed. Cutting edge technology--no pun intended, given its current situation--and they were being defeated by a haphazard human, one nowhere near as precise as Harold himself.

The Nurse winked at Harold and told him she'd let him get back to business, to the indignant horror of Shard, and then left the room.

Well.

Shard considered its options for nearly eleven point six seconds--it was gratified to find his time sense was undamaged by its current state--during which time Ana bared another thirty-one square inches of Harold's skin, much of it skin Shard had only seen while Harold was showering, on those occasions when Harold had brought it into the bathroom and it had incidentally caught a glimpse.

Well, and when Harold had gone into the men's room, but of course, Shard had always respected Harold's privacy, and had closed its receptors. Besides, there were unspoken rules about checking out men's external pipework in public toilets, and Shard assumed those rules applied to it just as they would to anyone else.

Harold's heart rate spike precipitously as Ana's hand moved along the bared skin, and Shard felt itself beginning to panic. Desperate, it sent an urgent plea in the direction of IntraVenous Needle.

IV had said earlier that Shard had pleasing angles and edges, and Shard wasn't above taking advantage of the attraction. It asked as charmingly as it could manage, and before long, IV was shifting uncomfortably.

Harold, however, didn't notice.

Ana's hand was between them, her long legs straddling him, her breasts brushing Harold's chest as she undulated slowly, smiling down at Harold in a way that certainly meant she had no intention of stopping.

Shard sent another urgent plea, but IV, it turned out, had an ethical obligation not to do anything that would actually hamper Harold's recovery. It could do no more.

And Harold's heart rate continued to climb.

Just as Shard began mentally composing its epitaph, just in case its opinion should be asked, Harold's pulse zoomed up fast, his blood pressure soaring to match, and then, seconds later, everything relaxed. The rhythms of his body slowed, and after a handful of murmured words between himself and Ana, Harold was well on his way to sleep.

Shard nearly fell over in shocked relief.

Except that it was lodged in place and unable to fall. But in spirit, it practically fainted.

Harold, unaware of his peril, slept on, watched over, in Shard's place, by IV, Blood Pressure Cuff, Heart Rate Monitor, and Call Button.

And Ana. She kept watch, too.

Shard told itself this would be enough, and went to sleep as well.

 


End file.
